Ep. 17 Breaking Down Canada's Mass Graves Story: Real or Fake?

We The 66

This is a message to our readers regarding the criticisms we received after last episode. But first some context.

Almost exactly one year after the murder of George Floyd, Canada had its own reckoning. But this time, there was no video or autopsy that sparked the unrest. There was a claim, and that claim may have turned out to be baseless. On May 27, 2021, the Kamloops Indian Band in British Columbia reported that they used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology to discover the unmarked graves of 215 indigenous children at a former residential school. The discovery sent shockwaves across Canada and then the world. Within 24 hours, the largest media outlets had jumped on the story. The Washington Post wrote, “Remains of 215 Indigenous children discovered at former Canadian residential school site.” The Guardian’s headline was virtually identical. The AP made it sound as though the bodies may still be warm: “More than 200 bodies found at Indigenous school in Canada.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau barely inhaled before mourning the news on Twitter and ordering the Canadian flag be flown half-mast – not just for that day, but until the Assembly of First Nations gave him permission to raise them again. That didn’t happen until November – five-and-a-half months later – marking the longest period of half-mast flag flying in the country’s history. Trudeau pledged to “bring these terrible wrongs to light” and the money started pouring out of Ottawa: After the Kamloops claim, numerous other tribes announced their own unmarked grave discoveries. In total, the Canadian government pledged $320M to support the searches. At the end of 2021, the Canadian Press crowned the Kamloops discovery its “news story of the year.” The below photo, meanwhile, earned the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year award. The AP describes the photo: “A haunting image of red dresses hung on crosses along a roadside, with a rainbow in the background, commemorating children who died at a residential school created to assimilate Indigenous children in Canada won the prestigious World Press Photo award Thursday.” Meanwhile, Canadians channeled their fury over the mass grave discoveries at Catholic and Christian churches, because many of the residential schools were Christian schools. The Kamloops Indian residential school operated under the supervision of the Roman Catholic Church until its closure in 1978. Canada established these schools to assimilate indigenous students. Today, critics allege they constituted a “cultural genocide” against indigenous peoples by forcing them into white colonial culture at the expense of their language and culture. They also point to many harrowing allegations of sexual and physical abuse perpetrated against children by the schools’ authorities. But the schools aren’t without their defenders, who generally say they were needed to integrate indigenous people into Canadian society; that parents generally sent their kids away to get an education or because they couldn’t take care of them; or that kids had to go because they lived in sparsely populated places with no day schools. This had been a controversial historical topic in Canada for decades. The Kamloops allegations brought it to the forefront. On June 30, 2021 – weeks after the initial Kamloops allegations – the executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association tweeted, "Burn it all down." Protesters heeded these words, and – as the media and government remained silent — set dozens of churches on fire. At least 33 were burned to the ground, according to the CBC. So three years later, what has been found at Kamloops? Nothing – not a body, not a bone. When we heard about this story, we reached out to a Kamloops spokesperson, indigenous leaders, and members of the media who reported on the mass graves. None responded. We only received a reply from Dr. Thomas Flanagan, an esteemed retired professor who authored a book – Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us –about the Kamloops allegations and their aftermath. He is the guest on our latest podcast. You can watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc8IfsnB5ho&t=54s Let us know what you think of this episode.

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